Prawn and pumpkin coconut milk curry (Konju Pulungari)

This is a Kerala dish called Konju Pulungari. "Konju" means prawns and "pulungari" is a curry with coconut milk and something sour, either vinegar or tamarind. Pumpkin is a festival vegetable in South India. This dish is originally made without spinach. But we tried making it with spinach and it complimented the smoothness of the coconut milk and sweetness of the pumpkin very well. Very very satisfying and it takes so little time and effort to make it. Serve it over a bowl of steamy basmati rice. If you cannot get curry leaves, just skip them. Yet again, this is great comfort food!

You will need: 500 gr prawns, cleaned 150 gr pumpkin [red, if you're in India], cut into medium size cubes a handful of spinach, coarsely chopped 400 ml coconut milk 2 medium onions, thinly sliced 2.5 cm ginger, peeled and sliced 2 green chilies, halved lenghtwise (remove seeds for a milder version) 10 curry leaves (optional) 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds 1 tsp of cumin seeds 1 tsp of vinegar 200 ml of water salt to taste oil for frying 1. Heat some oil in a pot and first fry the mustard and cumin seeds until the mustard seeds start popping. 2. Next, add the curry leaves, ginger, chilies and onion and fry on a medium flame until the onion softens and becomes translucent (don't let it brown, reduce the flame if needed). 2. Add turmeric powder, salt to taste and pumpkin cubes, mix it well and fry for another couple of minutes. 3. Pour coconut milk and water, bring it to a boil and cook until the pumpkin softens. Stir occasionally. 4. Finally, add the prawns and spinach, mix it and cook for up to 5 minutes or until the prawns are cooked. Add one teaspoon of vinegar and mix it well, taste for salt. Serve it over rice or with white bread.

Enjoy!

Kerala Fish Curry with Fresh Coconut

This is a traditional Kerala curry and one of my favourite Amuma's [Ranjit's grandmother], who is an excellent cook, dishes. It's gravy has a nice combination of hotness from red chilies and smoothness from fresh coconut. I could eat it everyday! Amuma was very nice to share her recipe with me after I told her about my blog. If you cannot get fresh or dried curry leaves, just skip them. And you don't necessarily need raw mangoes, which are added for sourness. You can replace them with tamarind water or lime/lemon juice. So here we go.

You will need: 1 kg of white fish, cleaned and sliced 1 coconut 5-7 dried red chilies (adjust according to taste) 3-4 shallot onions (can be substituted with regular red onion) raw mango OR a small piece of dried tamarind OR ~1 tbsp juice of lime/lemon 1 tsp turmeric powder 1-2 green chilies 12-14 curry leaves (optional) 1 tsp coconut oil for garnishing (optional) 1. First you will have to open the coconut. If you haven't done it before, you can find very good instructions here. It takes a little bit of work, I used to do it myself while living in Lithuania, but the taste is so worth it. And since I moved to India, I get my fresh coconut from the market like this: 2. Next, put coconut pieces into a food processor and grind it till you get a coarse paste. Here, I am using this cool gadget to scrape out the coconut without having to get it out of the shell first: 3. If you are using shallot onions [sambar onions], that are milder and sweeter, you can soak them in water for a bit so that it is easier to peel them. If you don't have shallots, you can just substitute them with a regular red onion, peel it and cut into quarters. Also, soak the dried red chillies in some water so they are easier to grind. Put the onions and dried red chillies into a food processor or a blender and grind them till you get a as smooth as possible paste. You might need to add a few tablespoons of water while grinding. 4. If you are using dried tamarind, soak a small piece (marble size) of it in a couple tablespoons of water for about 10 minutes and then squeeze out the juices, disregard the skin and seeds. If you are using raw mango, keep it aside for now. Mix together the red chili and onion paste, ground coconut, turmeric powder and tamarind/lime juice [if not using raw mango]. The paste should be slightly coarse. 5. If you are using the raw mango, peel it and slice it. Also, cut the green chillies lengthwise and remove the seeds. If you like milder food, you can soak them into some water, I don't... 6. In a big pot, mix together the coconut paste and 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, add the green chillies, curry leaves and raw mango slices [if using them]. Add salt to taste and mix it well. 7. Reduce the flame and add the fish slices. I used kingfish, but any white meaty and less bony fish will do. Cover the pot and let it cook for about 8-10 minutes or till the fish is cooked. In Kerala, they garnish it with just a few drops of coconut oil at the end (optional). The colour of the gravy will depend a lot on the kind of red chillies you used. We used red Kashmiri chillies, which add this bright colour to the dish. Serve it over hot rice and with lots of gravy. Enjoy!

Kerala Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk

This chicken stew with an aromatic coconut milk gravy is a great comfort food. It's simple and quick to make, doesn't need many ingredients and most importantly, is so delicious and satisfying. This recipe is from Kerala, a state in India where they use a lot of both fresh coconut and coconut milk in their cooking. Creamy coconut milk makes this stew very soothing, cinnamon and cloves warm you up, you can taste just a hint of ginger and sweetness of onions. Green chillies are optional if you prefer a very mild food, but they add a nice kick to the stew. We like eating with some nice white bread, which we dip into the gravy so that not a drop of this goodness gets waisted. It tastes and in person looks much better than in a picture!

You will need: 1/2 kg chicken pieces, skinless or with skin 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced 1 cm ginger root, peeled and chopped 12 black peppercorns 3 cm cinnamon stick, broken into smaller pieces 5 cloves 1 cup coconut milk 10 curry leaves (optional) 2 green chillies, chopped (cut lengthwise and remove seeds for a milder version) salt to taste oil for frying 1. Heat some oil in a pot with a thick bottom and first fry the onion until it becomes soft. Don't let it brown, reduce the flame if it starts burning. 2. Next, add the ginger and fry for another moment. 3. Add cinnamon, black peppercorns, cloves and curry leaves and fry them only until they release the aroma. Don't worry if you cannot get curry leaves, just skip them. 4. Add the potatoes and fry for another minute before adding the chicken pieces, keep frying for a couple of minutes or till the chicken pieces start browning lightly on all sides. 5. Mix 1/2 of the coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water, pour over the chicken and bring it to a boil. 6. Add green chillies (optional) and salt to taste, cover the pot, reduce the flame and cook till the potatoes and chicken are done. It will take you 10-15 minutes, the time will depend on the size of the pieces. 7. Once it's cooked, mix in the remaining half of the coconut milk and remove the pot from the flame. Adding some coconut milk right at the end of the cooking, adds a nice fresh coconut flavour to the stew. Enjoy!

Chicken Biryani

Everyone loves good biryani - aromatic rice layered with soft and juicy chicken, mutton or vegetables. No wonder it's often served at different festivals and celebrations. Making biryani is quite a time consuming process so most of the time we end up ordering it from a local restaurant rather than cooking it at home. There is simply not enough time left at the end of a working day. But once in a while, when you are expecting a dear guest or simply for a family dinner on a weekend or a holiday it's worth all the work. I really enjoyed making this biryani with all the lovely aromas at every step of it. It's one of my husband's family recipes that everyone was raving about. It was a bit different from biryani I tasted before, maybe it is a Kerala recipe, but it was absolutely delicious!

You will need: 1/2 chicken, cut into medium size pieces, with skin or skinless a small cup of natural yogurt ~1 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder 6 (4+2) cardamon pods 5 (3+2) cloves 7 (5+2) 2 cm cinnamon stick pieces 1-2 bay leaves 4 (3+1) medium onions, thinly sliced 9 small garlic cloves, chopped 3-4 cm ginger root piece, chopped 3-5 green chillies, halved and seeds removed 1.5 cup Basmati rice a handful of mint leaves, chopped a handful of coriander leaves, chopped 2 tbsp of lime/lemon juice oil for frying 1 tsp of ghee/butter 1. Mix chicken pieces with yogurt, turmeric and salt and let it marinate while getting other ingredients ready. 2. Chicken will be the tastiest and softest if you cook it in a pressure cooker. [If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can make it in a regular pot as well, just cook it for a longer time until chicken is done.] Heat some oil in a pressure cooker and first fry 4 cardamon pods, 3 cloves, 5 cinnamon pieces and bay leaves until the spices release their lovely aroma. 3. Add 3 of the chopped onions and fry it very well on a high heat. When the onion starts browning, add the garlic, ginger and green chillies and fry for another minute. 4. Next, take out the marinated chicken pieces, add them to the pot and fry them evenly on all sides for just a few minutes before adding the yogurt, in which they were being marinated. Finally, pour a little bit of water, cover the pressure cooker and let it cook for 5 minutes after the first whistle. Remove the pressure cooker from the heat, let it cool down a little bit and open it carefully. Strain the juices from the chicken pieces and onions with all the spices (should be about 1.5 cup of liquid) and keep it all aside. 5. While the chicken is cooking, you can start making the rice. Heat some oil in a pot and first fry the rest of the spices (cardamon, clove and cinnamon) for a couple of minutes. 6. Add the rest of the chopped onion and fry it well until it browns. Remove a little bit of caramelized onion and keep it aside for garnishing. 7. Finally, add the rice and first fry it until it starts changing the colour (for about 5 minutes), stir it from time to time so that it doesn't burn at the bottom. Pour 1.5 cup of water, sprinkle some salt, bring it to a boil, cover the pot, reduce the heat and simmer until the water evaporates. Then pour the juices you separated from the cooked chicken, cover it again and let it simmer until the water evaporates again and rice is done. 8. Preheat the oven to 170-180 C. In a big ceramic or glass dish that can be used in an oven, start layering the biryani: put 1/3 of rice on the bottom, next put half of the chicken pieces and onion with spices, sprinkle with half of chopped mint and coriander leaves and 1 tablespoon of lime/lemon juice. Don't put too much of lime juice as there will be some sourness from the yogurt already. Repeat it one more time and cover it with a top layer of rice. Sprinkle the top with one teaspoon (or as much as you want :o)) of melted ghee/butter. 9. Cover the dish and cook the biryani in an oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve it right away. Just before serving, top it with caramelized onions.

Enjoy!